JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<body onload="mynew();">
    <div id="mydiv" class="new">text inside the div</div>

CSS

span.change {
    color: red;
}
span {
    color:black;
}

JavaScript

function mynew() {
    var myDiv = document.getElementById('mydiv');
    var contents = myDiv.innerHTML.split(" ");
    var modText = '';

    for (var i = 0; i < contents.length; i++) {
        modText += '<span>' + contents[i] + '</span> ';
    }
    myDiv.innerHTML = modText;

    window.onclick = myFunction;

    function myFunction(e) {
        e.target.className = "change";
        var selected = e.target.innerHTML;
        alert('Selected: ' + selected);
    }
}